I've mentioned in a few previous posts about the issues with our shifting sunroom foundation, and the week finally came for the leveling work to begin. The sunroom was built on a patio slab separate from the rest of the house by a previous owner, and patio slabs aren't meant to hold that amount of weight, so over time the sunroom has been pulling away from the rest of the house and sinking into our backyard.

After a lot of research and multiple bids, we chose to go with Level Best Foundation Repair and they started on Monday. Sadly the work meant they had to pull up several rocks from our newly laid patio to access the foundation, but they very nicely offered to pull up entire rocks and not break them. I was hopeful this would make the patio repair process a little easier on us. The first morning they started I snuck out in the backyard and interrupted their work to get a few photos.

Foundation Work, Morning of Day One

I came home after the first day of their work to lots of new, and expanded, cracks in the sunroom walls and floor tiles and a crazy looking backyard. Of course more cracks inside and outside are to be expected in the leveling process, but I still had to remind myself not to hyperventilate.

Foundation Work, Afternoon of Day One

Foundation Work, Sunroom Day One

Of course I curiously peaked under the wooden boards surrounding the house to check out the metal pieces leveling out the room. They are pretty intense looking and it's crazy to know these are also under the rest of our house too!

Foundation Work

Yesterday morning they did a few additional adjustments and within less than an hour our sunroom was almost completely level (as a patio slab it will never be 100%). I know it will continue to settle and shift over the next month, so I'm trying to prepare myself for additional cracks showing up in the sheetrock and grout. I snuck out in the backyard again this morning to capture a few more photos and by this point, the crew was pretty used to me.

Foundation Work, Morning of Day Two

When I got home yesterday I was really impressed to find that the crew had put back every patio rock, so the only indication of them having been moved was the missing decomposed granite around each (super easy fix!). Someone super cute photobombed the bottom picture of the patio.

Foundation Work, End of Day Two

Both doors in the sunroom, out to the yard, now open (we haven't been able to open one of them for months) but there are even more cracks inside and now one of the windows won't close completely. All of that, while not fun, was to be expected. In the end, I was very impressed with the crew, the fact that they not only put back together our patio but even moved the furniture back, and so far the work seems professional and well done.

Foundation Work, Sunroom Day Two

Foundation work is certainly stressful, especially since even once fixed, everything doesn't immediately look better. I'm just grateful the previous owners at least fixed the foundation under the rest of our house - that would have been a really stressful process!

In a month, once the newly leveled slab has more thoroughly settled, we're planning to bring out a few local contractors to get estimates on sheetrock repair for the walls and ceiling, tile and grout repair/replacement, rehanging the doors and some window trim repair (rain damage). In addition, we'll probably also get an extra quote on painting the room, hanging wood paneling on the ceiling, adding rain gutters outside (to avoid future rain damage), and stripping and repainting the doors that our dogs have thoroughly destroyed. Some of the work we could do ourselves, and might have to depending on the quotes we get back, but this is just one more of those projects I'm thinking might be less stressful to bring in a professional for. I'll keep you updated on all those next steps!